Rick Boucher, Author at Internet Innovation Alliance

Recent Contributions from Rick Boucher

Reform the US low-income broadband program by rebuilding Lifeline

America’s Lifeline program has fallen far short of achieving its potential as the Federal Communications Commission has attempted to convert it to a broadband-centric program.

April 16, 2021

Reform This Lifeline for American Families

Op-eds

Alarmingly large numbers of American families are currently excluded from the digital world. Either they live in regions where it is uneconomical for the broadband providers to deploy infrastructure or they find the services to be unaffordable. Solving the affordability problem will be the province of both the FCC and Congress through reform of the 36-year-old Lifeline program, initiated in 1985 and largely underutilized today.

March 3, 2021

Viewpoint: Throw the Neediest a Modernized Lifeline

Op-eds

Updating key federal telecom program would narrow digital divide.

October 13, 2020

It’s Time to Shore up the Universal Service Fund So It Can Live up to Its Name

Op-eds

Congress needs to create a solution that reflects how Americans actually use telecommunications services rather than how we once did.

September 11, 2020

Pandemic Shows Why All Americans Need Broadband Access

Op-eds

We have come to realize that, for our national well-being, the internet must be available and affordable to all.

August 19, 2020

Increase Broadband Access for Americans In Need

Op-eds

With more Americans than ever working and learning from home, the necessity of having a broadband connection is underscored, and one of the biggest flaws of our communications infrastructure is revealed: It doesn’t reach everyone.

August 5, 2020

Congress should make sure telemedicine is here to stay

Op-eds

The COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying relaxation of regulatory barriers has occasioned an explosion in telemedicine use, vaulting it to the center of health care delivery.

July 16, 2020

All of America’s Kids Should Have Access to the Virtual Classroom

Op-eds

The “homework gap” affects about 12 million children of school age across the country who lack broadband connectivity in their homes. The culprit is a combination of a lack of access to a broadband connection (especially for those in rural areas) and a lack of adoption (primarily among low-income families in more urban and suburban areas).

July 8, 2020

Congress can narrow the healthcare gap by closing the digital divide

Op-eds

As promising as telemedicine is for rural medicine, obtaining a high-speed internet connection for telehealth is an impossibility for tens of millions of rural residents who are on the wrong side of a seemingly intractable digital divide.

June 18, 2020

Let’s Learn From Europe’s Broadband Mistake

Op-eds

IIA Honorary Chairman Rick Boucher, founder of the House Internet Caucus, says the US’s better internet performance during the coronavirus pandemic is attributable to sustained private investment that has been encouraged by a light-touch regulatory regime for broadband.

May 15, 2020

Telemedicine Rules Should Be Permanently Eased

Op-eds

Medicare and state telemedicine restrictions have been eased during the coronavirus pandemic, and these changes need to be made permanent, writes IIA Honorary Chairman Rick Boucher. Doctors can see more patients and get fairly paid for it, and patients can use smart phones and personal computers to get needed medical advice.

May 13, 2020

Congress Punished Rural TV Viewers, and We Will Pay the Price During the Pandemic

Op-eds

For us newly minted shut-ins, TV has become even more of a lifeline as we seek out news on the virus … and a respite from it. For thousands of rural Americans, that lifeline may soon be cut off, leaving their households blind, right at the time we need to see what is going on.

May 1, 2020

Get IIA in your inbox

Follow Us

Every American should have broadband access.